Hungarian parliament yet to sign off on application despite repeated promises not to hold up process alone
Viktor Orbán has said he will urge the Hungarian parliament to sign off on Sweden’s Nato bid “at the first possible opportunity”, as diplomats said Hungary’s allies were “exasperated” by the country’s foot-dragging.
Sweden applied to join Nato in May 2022, but its accession was delayed as Turkey and Hungary strung out the ratification process.
Continue reading...Vote leaves Hungary as only country still to ratify application made in response to Russian invasion of Ukraine
The Turkish parliament has given its long-awaited approval to Sweden’s membership of Nato, bringing the Nordic country significantly closer to joining the western military alliance after months in limbo.
Three months after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, submitted a bill on approving membership to parliament, MPs voted in favour of ratifying it late on Tuesday night.
Continue reading...Traces of DNA found on lumps of tree resin suggest trout and hazelnuts were popular 10,000 years ago
DNA from a type of “chewing gum” used by teenagers in Sweden 10,000 years ago is shedding new light on the stone age diet and oral health, according to research.
The wads of gum are made from pieces of birch bark pitch, a tar-like black resin, and carry clearly visible teethmarks.
Continue reading...Despite leading lavish lifestyles, some monarchs are influencing people to make greener choices
When Prince Frederik takes the throne on Sunday, the Danish crown will pass from his mother, Queen Margrethe II, a monarch who has cast doubt on the fact that human pollution is heating the planet, to one who feels bound by duty to call for stronger action on climate breakdown.
“I think it’s important for me to have a message for other people,” he told the Financial Times in 2010 after a trip to the melting Arctic with the heirs to the Norwegian and Swedish thrones, “to convince the broader population there are changes happening and that we are making the change.”
Continue reading...The former England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson has revealed he has been diagnosed with terminal cancer and in a “best-case” scenario has about a year left to live.
Eriksson, who managed England for five years before leaving after the 2006 World Cup, stood down from his most recent role as the sporting director at the Swedish club Karlstad 11 months ago due to health issues.
Continue reading...Swedish music stars profit from blockbuster year for Mamma Mia! production company Littlestar Services
Abba stars Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus have shared in a dividend of nearly £1m after a surge in profits at the production company behind the Mamma Mia! stage musical and film adaptations.
The Swedish music legends received the payout after a blockbuster year for Littlestar Services, the licensing and production company behind the musical based on the pop group’s hits.
Continue reading...Some bridges closed while train and ferry services suspended across Scandinavia
Giorgia Meloni has asked for an MP whose gun was fired at a New Year’s Eve party to be suspended from her far-right Brothers of Italy party, she said.
Meloni has been under pressure from opposition leaders to take action against Emanuele Pozzolo, who confirmed that the pistol belonged to him but denied firing the bullet, which injured a member of the security entourage of the Italian justice ministry undersecretary Andrea Delmastro.
We need to build relationships as equals, serious and non-predatory. This can be done through investments and strategies.
The cases of some Episcopal Conferences must be understood in their contexts. In several countries there are strong cultural and even legal issues that require time and pastoral strategies that go beyond the short term.
If there are laws that condemn the mere act of declaring oneself as a homosexual with prison and in some cases with torture and even death, it goes without saying that a blessing would be imprudent. It is clear that the Bishops do not wish to expose homosexual persons to violence.
In some places, perhaps, some catechesis will be necessary that can help everyone to understand that these types of blessings are not an endorsement of the life led by those who request them.
Even less are they an absolution, as these gestures are far from being a sacrament or a rite. They are simple expressions of pastoral closeness that do not impose the same requirements as a sacrament or a formal rite. We will all have to become accustomed to accepting the fact that, if a priest gives this type of simple blessings, he is not a heretic, he is not ratifying anything nor is he denying Catholic doctrine.
Continue reading...A historic trial, which will call on 61 witnesses worldwide, is expected to set a precedent for global corporations in foreign jurisdictions
Before the arrival of Lundin Oil in the town of Leer, now part of South Sudan, life there was peaceful, says George Tai Kuony. His childhood was that of a “typical village boy”, driving cattle, helping his family and going to school. But in June 1998, when he was 15, armed forces entered the town and changed his life for ever.
He fled, became separated from his family and hid for seven days before he was able to return. “When we got there, Leer wasn’t the town I had left seven days ago,” says the 40-year-old lawyer and human rights defender. “Everything was burned down, everything was destroyed. I could see the bodies of dead people lying in the street.” As a result of the conflict, he lost his father, and later his mother and one sibling.
Continue reading...Bella Nilsson’s company NMT Think Pink accused of illegally dumping tens of thousands of tonnes of waste
Eleven people have been charged by a Swedish court in what is being billed as potentially the country’s worst environmental crime in half a century.
NMT Think Pink – a previously celebrated waste management company known for its trademark pink rubbish bags – is accused of illegally burying and dumping tens of thousands of tonnes of waste at 21 sites across 15 municipalities around Sweden, in what prosecutors described as a “very serious crime”.
Continue reading...Johan Floderus has been held for more than 600 days and is facing trial on charges of spying for Israel
Sweden has demanded the immediate release of an EU diplomat who has been held in an Iranian jail for more than 600 days and is facing trial on charges of spying for Israel.
Ulf Kristersson, the Swedish prime minister, said on Monday that intensive work was under way to try to free Johan Floderus from Tehran’s Evin prison after Iran said on Sunday that a trial of the Swedish national had begun.
Continue reading...Johan Floderus faces trial for ‘spying for Israel’ and ‘corruption on Earth’, one of Iran’s most serious offences
Iran has accused a Swedish EU diplomat held in a Tehran prison for more than 600 days of spying for Israel and “corruption on Earth”, a crime that carries the death penalty.
“Johan Floderus is accused of extensive measures against the security of the country, extensive intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime and corruption on Earth,” the judiciary’s Mizan Online news agency said on Sunday.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Matts Floderus says his son Johan has been through ‘levels of hell in his nearly 600 days in detention
The father of a 33-year-old Swedish citizen and EU diplomat held in captivity in Iran for the past 18 months has revealed the “levels of hell” his son has experienced, as his family and employers step up their fight for his release.
Johan Floderus, who on Friday will have been incarcerated for 600 days in Tehran’s Evin prison with no routine consular visits or phone calls, has been on hunger strike at least five times, his father said.
Continue reading...Court decides postal service does not have to deliver licence plates, for now, in latest twist in row over collective bargaining
Tesla has lost a legal action against Sweden’s postal service as a dispute with Nordic trade unions escalates.
A Swedish court said on Thursday that PostNord did not, for the time being, need to deliver licence plates to the electric carmaker that were being blocked by the postal service’s workers, in the latest twist in a battle over collective bargaining agreements.
Continue reading...Tobias Billström, Sweden’s foreign minister, says it is ‘high time to get this ratification done by Turkey and Hungary’
Sweden’s foreign minister said he is “grateful” for US support, as the country continues to wait to join Nato.
The Finnish president’s office told Reuters today the presidents of Finland and Poland did not discuss military cooperation regarding Finland’s border with Russia during a meeting last week.
Continue reading...US carmaker claims ‘discriminatory attack’ after industrial action stops new cars receiving Swedish plates
Tesla is suing the Swedish transport agency, accusing it of a “discriminatory attack” on the US electric carmaker, after strike action prevented its new vehicles from getting licence plates in Sweden.
The lawsuit is an escalation in a row that started between the car company and the union representing Swedish Telsa workers, who are calling for collective bargaining rights and have been on strike for five weeks.
Continue reading...Dutch general election results show how populist and far-right parties are advancing into political mainstream
Geert Wilders’ shock victory in the Dutch general election confirms the upward trajectory of Europe’s populist and far-right parties, which – with the occasional setback – are continuing their steady march into the mainstream.
There is no guarantee that Wilders, whose anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) won 37 seats in Wednesday’s ballot – more than twice its 2021 total – will be able to form a government with a majority in the Netherlands’ 150-seat parliament.
Continue reading...Arrival of hundreds of people at Finnish and Estonian borders claimed to be ‘fully state-orchestrated’ operation
Estonia has accused Russia of weaponising immigration on Europe’s eastern borders amid a rise in the number of asylum seekers trying to enter its territory and Finland.
Speaking during a meeting in Stockholm of Nordic and Baltic defence ministers, Hanno Pevkur, Estonia’s defence minister, claimed the hundreds of people who had arrived at the borders of the two countries in recent weeks were a “fully state-orchestrated” operation by Moscow.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Pål Jonson unable to give timeline for completion of membership process but confident it will happen
Sweden must become a full member of the Nato military alliance “as fast as possible” to ward off the threat from Russia, the country’s defence minister has said, as impatience builds in Stockholm over its slow path to accession.
Pål Jonson said that he was unable to put a timeline on the completion of Sweden’s Nato approval process buthe was confident that Turkey and Hungary, the two remaining members left to ratify the country’s membership, would do so eventually.
Continue reading...Vehicles modified to not go above 19mph became a teenage rite of passage, but amid a rise in accidents, there are calls for a ban
It began as an agricultural necessity and grew into a beloved rite of passage for teenagers in rural Sweden. Invented in the early 1900s by farmers who were short on equipment, the A-traktor lives on as the vehicle of choice for motorists as young as 15.
But the cars, which are supposed to have been modified to have a maximum speed of 30km/h (19mph), are increasingly causing concern. Guidance introduced in 2020 made it easier to convert almost any car into an A-traktor and the change appears to have led to a sharp rise in related injuries and deaths.
Continue reading...Northvolt says new lithium-free sodium-ion battery is cheaper, more sustainable and doesn’t rely on scarce raw materials
Europe’s energy and electric vehicle industries could reduce their dependency on scarce raw materials from China after the launch of a “breakthrough” sodium-ion battery, according to its Swedish developer.
Northvolt, Europe’s only large homegrown electric battery maker, has said it has made a lower cost, more sustainable battery designed to store electricity which does not use lithium, nickel, graphite and cobalt.
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